Devils hope to add television to marketing plans

ABANY — Among the revelations today at the Albany Devils’ introductory news conference (which, incidentally, came precisely 11 weeks after New Jersey’s initial e-mail announcing the move) was a more proactive position toward television.

Lou Lamoriello, the New Jersey Devils’ president/general manager/CEO, said that the team is looking into to have some games televised.

“Some home games, maybe some road games,” Lamoriello said, “just to get the people in and not worry about them not coming to the games, just so they can expose it to the families.”

A spokeswoman at Time Warner cable’s Albany division confirmed that the parties have discussed the possibility of producing a couple of home games, perhaps linked to the company’s sponsorship of the Devils-Phantoms series.

When they were affiliated with the Devils, the Albany River Rats had a few games televised on Time Warner in the 1990s, but the previous ownership group discontinued that because of production costs.

Lamoriello, whose organization now owns the AHL franchise, sees the benefit of local television to attract new fans, even if it may hurt the team at the gate initially.

“There’s nothing like the game live,” Lamoriello said, “but the second best is television.”

8 Responses

i think its a very great idea. it stinks i have directv so iw ouldnt get a chance to see them on tv if i couldnt get to a game because of work. but if it was on a station that was local like fox23 or one of the other local stations i would record it on dvr :)

It would be great to see some local A-Devils games on TW Cable. The local guys do a really good job covering high school and college sports. Last year we got to see some of the coverage provided by Rochester & Syracuse TW, and they were more fun to watch than the webcasts (except for the non-Albany announcers). It might also bring out some bigger home made signs and fans hamming it up for the cameras, but that creates a buzz to the game.

It’s great that TW Cable might air some of the A-Devils games!!! How about throwing in some games against Adirondack (home/away)?!!! It would be good for fans who can’t make it to the TU Center or the Civic Center and better than watching it on AHL Live!!!

Pete, someone on Facebook quoted Chris Valente, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, as saying, “We will as of now have all of our road games on the radio but I can’t say for sure if all the home ones will be carried as well.”

I liked the Devil Dog mascot. As a Rangers fan it’s tough to see the logo, but as a dog person I’ll focus on the dog aspect and not the Devils logo. Still wish the team success and look forward the season.